Longanisa

I love pork fat the same way Joan Rivers loves plastic surgery. Yup, I'm addicted - to grease. I should eat healthy but my philosophy is: I want to die sick because it's retarded to die healthy. Last night, I got inspired to make longanisa after I found my meat grinder attachment in the same box with the moon cake molds the other night.
Sausage casings I got from the Philippines, this is less work than the wet casings I buy from here.

I got tired of stuffing so I made the rest into skinless.Recipe: Ingredients
2 lbs - pork meat (I bought shoulder cut and ground them coarsely)
1/2 cup - pork fat diced-this is what makes all the difference to me but I only had this much from a left over pork belly.
6 cloves garlic crushed
3 Tbsp - brown sugar
1/3 cup - vinegar ( I used the Filipino brand )
1.5 tsp - Kosher salt
2 tsp - Paprika
1 tsp - black pepper
1 tsp - pepper flakes (use less or more) but I only had 2 packs of Pizza Huts I found in my drawer.

Mix all ingredients and let stand about 2 hours. Fill casing with mixture and let ripen in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Prick holes in the casings, not much but just enough to let it breath.

De-stressing

I am still feeling unhinged because of the changes in my work situation, but instead of getting busy and work on inventing my resume, I am avoiding it like it's, aahhh....bill collector. Working in the kitchen always helps me de-stress, so when my friend Jupson FB'd me and told me to breath in, breath out and cook, I thought, I might as well obey her. So I looked around my kitchen on what's available, and I found almost rotten bananers and yogurt that's way beyond retirement so I made banana bread.
While waiting for the bread in the oven, I sorted my still un-opened box of kitchen stuff in the garage. I don't know what I was smoking back then to think that I could make a moon cake, or why would I buy these molds? I got this 9 years ago thinking I would impress Don with a home made moon cake? Since Chat doesn't care for jewelries and I don't have money for her to inherit, maybe I should will this to her. At least she can beat her kids (if any are coming) into submission with this.Here's the banana bread recipe if you want it.
1 stick butter
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 c or about 2 bananas-mashed
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c - sour cream (I didn't have sour cream so I used yogurt)
1.5 c - flour

1. Mix first 3 ingredients until creamy. Add bananas and cinnamon mixing it well. Then add the last 4 until all is well combined. Pour into greased and floured loaf pan at 350'c for 45 minutes or more. Mine was done in 45 minutes.

Steamed Rice Cake (Puto)

Remembering my mom's rice cake (puto) I got obsessed on how to make it. Luckily, I have this blender that pulverizes anything in less than 1 minute. Soak rice overnite in equal parts water then grind with about half of the remaining water drained out. Set it aside. I left this all day while I was at work then went to dinner with Chat and when I got home it looked like this. For 1 cup of rice I use 1 tsp of baking powder, 1/2 c of coconut milk and 1/8 c of sugar. I mix them all together and fill the molds. I don't have a big steamer so I used tea cups and 1 ensaymada mold lined with banana leaves. I buttered the molds.Note: I thinned out the coconut milk with equal parts water because I used the canned one. Also, use sugar accordingly. I don't like it sweet. Maybe later if I'm going to make this again, I will try using some coloring, but I prefer food in it's simplest. Here it is:
Source: Market Manila, Pinoyrecipe.net, babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com

My comfort food

Because of the impending move of my office location, I'm feeling unhinged. And when I am stressed, I do one of 2 things; I either don't eat or I don't stop eating. Laksa or Pho is my comfort food I think because the herbs' fragrance exploding in my mouth, makes me feel exhilarated so this is what I made yesterday.1. If you have this handy at home -the soup base and a 6 oz can of coconut milk you can have laksa just as good if not better. When I make my Laksa, it is definitely better than Lion City, the only restaurant here in the Dallas area that serves Laksa. If you only follow the instruction on the bottle, you got a winner already but I add this 2: Belacan(shrimp paste cake) and fresh shrimp heads. After so many tries, I learned that this is the secret to a really outstanding Laksa. Simmer the shrimp heads for an hour( add the shrimp to the broth after you turn off the heat and you can use it as topping) and use it as broth instead of plain water. Break off about a tablespoon of belacan and stir it with the Laksa paste, add the shrimp broth, coco milk and let boil then simmer 5 minutes and turn off the heat. The belacan is not something you want to show to guests because it smells and looks like a dried up scraping from the sewage, but it makes all the difference in the taste. If you don't have it, just use fish sauce.



The soup gets better the next day, so just keep it in the refrigerator and only heat up however much you need then pour it over cooked rice noodles and whatever topping you want.
And this is a must have: Sriracha sauce and lime.